Religion and the American Religious Right

Americans, including the commercial press, have adopted the practice of judging things by what is said rather than by what is done. Now the Economist (Lexington | Purgatory without end, May 28, 2005) seems to have adopted that practice too. Two claims in this piece are naïve at best.

 “Look at the issues that have dominated. . . . Religion is at the heart of each one.” And “America is simultaneously a highly religious culture and a highly secular one.”

True, the American “religious right” has made a lot of noise over a relatively small number of issues that it also claims are religiously motivated. But substantial evidence debunks that claim.

Take the din raised over posting the Ten Commandments in public places. If this din were truly based on religion, one should be able to produce evidence that those making the noise themselves obey the Commandments. But one would be hard pressed to come up with any. Those on the “religious right” are no more scrupulous about obeying the Commandments than the non-religious are.

Furthermore, adultery is forbidden by the Seventh Commandment, but the “religious right” raised hardly a whisper as the various stated decriminalized it over several decades, and coveting, which is forbidden by the Tenth Commandment, seems to be the basis of the entire American economy.

Abortion and its offshoot, stem cell research, are also loudly condemned, but since only ten percent of Americans admit to having no religion, it is very likely that if every woman who has had an abortion since Roe vs. Wade were polled, the vast majority of them would claim to be Christians, and studies have shown that divorce is more prevalent among Christian fundamentalists than among the general population.

The American “religious right” loves to talk religious talk without ever taking the walk. Its religion is worn on its sleeves; unfortunately it never penetrates the skin and goes to the heart.

But interestingly enough, these so called “moral issues” all have something in common that the august editors of the Economist seem to have missed. Look at them! Abortion, same-sex unions, adultery, explicit movies and television, even book-banning—all are issues concerning sex, and the American right has always had an extreme preoccupation with it.

Compare the howl the “religious right” raised over President Clinton’s sexual peccadilloes to the silence over President Bush’s prevarications, even though bearing false witness is prohibited by a Commandment while accepting an offer of fallatio from a pretty young woman is not.

Religion in America is based on the sinful preacher’s aphorism, Do as I say, not as I do. Religion comes cheap when its only attribute is talk.